Self-Reflection
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At first glance, academic and reflection can sound like contradictory concepts.
Writing an academic reflection essay often involves striking a balance
between a traditional, academic paper and a reflective essay. In order to find
this balance, consider the terms that encompass the title of the assignment.
The term “academic” suggests that the writer will be expected to observe
conventions for academic writing, such as using a professional tone and
crafting a thesis statement. On the other hand, the term “reflection” implies
that the writer should critically reflect on his or her work, project, or writing
process, depending on the assignment, and draw conclusions based on
these observations.
In general, an academic reflection essay is a combination of these two ideas:
writers should observe conventions for academic writing while critically
reflecting on their experience or project. Note that the term “critically”
suggests that the writing should not merely tell the reader what happened,
what you did, or what you learned. Critical reflection takes the writing one
step further and entails making an evaluative claim about the experience
or project under discussion. Beyond telling readers what happened, critical
reflection tends to discuss why it matters and how it contributed to the
effectiveness of the project.
Striking the proper balance between critical reflection and academic essay
is always determined by the demands of the particular writing situation,
so writers should first consider their purpose for writing, their audience,
and the project guidelines. While the subject matter of academic reflections
is not always “academic,” the writer will usually still be expected to adapt
their arguments and points to academic conventions for thesis statements,
evidence, organization, style, and formatting.
Several strategies for crafting an academic reflection essay are outlined
below based on three important areas: focus, evidence, and organization.
Focus
A thesis statement for an academic reflection essay is often an evaluative
claim about your experiences with a process or assignment. Several
strategies to consider for a thesis statement in an academic reflection essay
include:
Being Critical: It is important to ensure that the evaluative claim does
not simply state the obvious, such as that you completed the assignment,
or that you did or did not like it. Instead, make a critical claim about
whether or not the project was effective in fulfilling its purpose, or
whether the project raised new questions for you to consider and
somehow changed your perspective on your topic.
Placement: For some academic reflection essays, the thesis may not
come in the introduction but at the end of the paper, once the writer has
fully explained his or her experiences with the project. Think about where
the placement of your thesis will be most effective based on your ideas
and how your claim relates to them.
Consider the following example of a thesis statement in an academic
reflection essay:
By changing my medium from a picture to a pop song, my message that domestic
violence disproportionately affects women was more effectively communicated
to an audience of my classmates because they found the message to be more
memorable when it was accompanied by music.
This thesis makes a critical evaluative claim (that the change of medium
was effective) about the project, and is thus a strong thesis for an academic
reflection paper.
Evidence
Evidence for academic reflection essays may include outside sources, but
writers are also asked to support their claims by including observations
from their own experience. Writers might effectively support their claims by
considering the following strategies:
Incorporating examples: What examples might help support the claims
that you make? How might you expand on your points using these
examples, and how might you develop this evidence in relation to your
thesis?
Personal anecdotes or observations: How might you choose relevant
personal anecdotes/observations to illustrate your points and support
your thesis?
Logical explanations: How might you explain the logic behind a specific
point you are making in order to make it more credible to readers?
Consider the following example for incorporating evidence in an academic
reflection essay:
Claim: Changing the medium for my project from a picture to a pop
song appealed to my audience of fellow classmates.
Evidence: When I performed my pop song remediation for my
classmates, they paid attention to me and said that the message, once
transformed into song lyrics, was very catchy and memorable. By the
end of the presentation, some of them were even singing along.
In this example, the claim (that the change of medium was effective in
appealing to the new audience of fellow classmates) is supported because
the writer reveals his or her observation of the audience’s reaction.
(For more about using examples and anecdotes as examples, see
“Nontraditional Types of Evidence.”)
Organization
For academic reflection essays, the organizational structure may differ from
traditional academic or narrative essays because you are reflecting on your
own experiences or observations. Consider the following organizational
structures for academic reflection essays:
Chronological Progression: The progression of points will reflect the
order of events/insights as they occurred temporally in the project.
Sample Chronological Organization for a Remediation Reflection:
Paragraph 1: Beginning of the project
Paragraph 2: Progression of the remediation process
Paragraph 3: Progression of the remediation process
Paragraph 4: Progression of the remediation process
Paragraph 5: Progression of the remediation process
Paragraph 6: Conclusion—Was the project effective. How and why?
How did the process end?
By Main Idea/Theme: The progression of points will centralize on main
ideas or themes of the project.
Sample Organization By Main Idea/Theme for a Remediation
Reflection:
Paragraph 1: Introduction
Paragraph 2: Discuss the message being translated
Paragraph 3: Discuss the change of medium
Paragraph 4: Discuss the change of audience
Paragraph 5: Was the change effective? Explain.
Paragraph 6: Conclusion
Remember that while these strategies are intended to help you approach
an academic reflection paper with confidence, they are not meant to be
prescriptive. Academic reflection essays are often unique to the writer
because they ask the writer to consider his or her own observations or
reactions to an experience or project. You have distinctive ideas and
observations to discuss, so it is likely that your paper will reflect this
distinctiveness. With this in mind, consider how to most effectively compose
your paper based on your specific project guidelines, instructor suggestions,
and your experiences with the project.
By: Kristen Gay
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Why is it valuable for writers to read their own work aloud?
Reading their own work aloud gives writers the opportunity to take on the role of the reader. When “writers as readers” add hearing to seeing, another of the five senses is put to work in the critical evaluation process. Words and ideas that seemed to flow smoothly and connect logically inside the writer’s head often do not reflect the same sense of cohesiveness when heard in spoken form. Writers who hear their work read aloud are better equipped to evaluate the paper’s flow of ideas at the global level and to discover grammatical, punctuation, and word choice errors at the surface level.
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Related Resources at Writing Commons:
Add supporting details to back this claim
Avoid unnecessary repetition of supporting details
Distinguish your ideas from your source's
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Understand the fundamentals of page and Web design; use visual language to convey meaning; use design to assert authority and organize work for readers.
Writers use critical questions to find cracks and crannies, places where they need to develop or clarify their thinking. In their relentless pursuit of clearly expressed, well-developed ideas, they find soft spots—that is, passages that need to be developed or discarded and sections that just don't feel right—that feel mushy like cereal that has been sitting for too long in sour milk.
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The focus refers to the main idea of the text. One way to determine this main idea is to figure out the purpose of your essay. An essay should do more than give you a grade; for example, it can persuade an audience, argue a point, or inform a reader. The assignment sheet is a great place to look for the purpose of the essay. What is your instructor asking you to do? The topic, length, variety and amount of research, audience, etc., all coincide with what the assignment requires.
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There are times when writers may be asked to take an essay they wrote and turn it into a speech: perhaps they will give a talk at a conference, stand in front of a class for an oral presentation, or be asked to create a YouTube video. The assignment—the task of revising a paper into something that will be performed (read aloud or otherwise “given” live)—does not simply mean using the paper that exists on the computer screen. Altering a paper to a speech challenges the writer to engage with the audience and revise the piece into one that is easy to follow and interesting to listen to.
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Design pages to facilitate scanning by using headings, subheadings, columns; learn special page design considerations for the Web.
You can enhance readability by giving some thought to the design of your documents. By using headers, lists, bullets, and other design elements, you can reveal your organization to the reader and emphasize key points. Below are page design guidelines you should consider when writing print or online documents. Your design can underscore your message. Be sure to consider these guidelines in the context of design principles.
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Understand the role of revision in the lives of successful writers.
Our fast-paced, consumer-driven society is geared to offer a remarkable number of choices in nanoseconds. If the fast-food chain doesn't deliver lunch within sixty seconds, it's free. With a push of a button, people who live in large metropolitan areas can run through as many as 100 different channels on cable television.
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Format describes how we set up everything from the page margins to pictures to the works cited list. Adhering to format guidelines allows our reader to easily follow along with the paper and understand where outside sources were found.
Knowing how to use formatting, whether it is MLA or APA, is a key step in the development of an academic writer. Properly formatting papers ensures that sources are cited and used fairly, that the reader can find the sources easily, and that the paper is taken seriously in academic communities.
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Understand the fundamentals of typography, page, and web design; use visual language to convey meaning; use design to assert authority and organize work for readers.
"Design is a fun word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works."
-Steve Jobs
We live in a culture where images and document design are used aggressively to convey meaning.
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Style is not what we write but how we write it. For our purposes, style includes:
- grammar (the rules that govern standard American English)
- punctuation
- point of view
- syntax (how we arrange our sentences)
- word choice/vocabulary
- figurative language (metaphors, narratives, similies, etc.)
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In order to be convincing, a writer needs evidence for her claims. Evidence includes traditional sources such as books and journal articles but may also include anecdotes, photographs, web sources and videos. The kinds of evidence that are appropriate in a particular context depend on the writer's purpose.
Academic culture is an evidence-based culture. Good scholarship requires claims supported by facts, theories, and research. Finding the evidence is not enough, though, as it needs to be successfully integrated into texts.
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Learn strategies for organizing documents effectively. Learn how readers respond to deductive, inductive, and analytical paragraphs. Make effective transitions and learn how format creates belief.
Your brilliant insights are likely to be overlooked unless you learn to organize your ideas for readers. This section provides advice on structuring and organizing information for readers, regardless of the communication situation you are addressing.
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The organization of a paper matters at the level of the whole essay as well as within each paragraph. The organization of sentences matters within paragraphs, as writers choose which sentences to put in what order and how to create a smooth sense of connection between each sentence. But organization also matters between paragraphs, as writers choose when to present their ideas to their readers for the best effect.
The organization of texts is based upon conventions of particular genres. The ways in which texts are organized, are structured, and flow is determined largely by audience expectations.
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- Where is the paper’s title?
- Choose an original title for the paper
- Center the title
- Present the title in plain type
- Use standard capitalization in the title
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- Use Times New Roman font, 12 pt.
- Double-space the document throughout
- Set the margins at 1” on all four sides
- Indent the first line of each paragraph
- Remove unnecessary extra space(s) here
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- Where is your conclusion?
- Reiterate your paper’s thesis in your conclusion
- Summarize your paper’s main ideas in your conclusion
- Include fresh ideas in your conclusion
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Use pictures and photographs to catch the eye of your audience.
The expression "a picture is worth a thousand words" is more than a truism. Images can convey powerful emotion. Images can illustrate a process or capture a moment with precision (such as a tight end catching the football on the goal line).
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Understand design principles that are important for both paper and Web documents.
Font selection matters. Even the font you display your documents in can have powerful consequences. Some fonts can distract readers from your message while others draw in the reader's eye, bringing the reader's focus to your text.
- What are the Font Families?
- What is the Difference between Serif and Sans Serif Fonts?
- How Should You Mix Different Font Families?
- Strategies
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Understand design principles that are important for both paper and web documents.
Contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity--these are the basic cornerstones of design according to Robin Williams, author of the frequently cited Non-Designers Design Book. Minimalism and visuals are equally fundamental design concerns. These design principles apply to both paper and online documents, as suggested by Edward Barrett, Deborah A. Levinson, and Suzana Lisanti, authors of The MIT Guide to Teaching Web Site Design:
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Consider a variety of publishing options, including informal sharing, formal publication with publishing companies, self-publishing, and a variety of e-publication formats, including Web pages, wikis, and blogs.
Sharing your work with readers is an exciting and important stage of the writing process. Ultimately, you cannot determine if a document is successful until you share it with your readers and gauge their reactions.